Barbara's Online Articles
THREE THINGS I'VE LEARNED ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE
By Barbara A. Glanz
I have been working in customer service for most of my life. As a high school and college teacher, I was among the first to realize that I had customers. Later as Manager of Training and then Director of Quality in Training for Kaset International, an award winning Times Mirror company that focused solely on service quality, I designed customer service training, trained customer service trainers, and consulted regularly with senior managers who were initiating service cultures in their organizations. In the last four years I have written two books on customer service, and I am in demand as a speaker worldwide on the topic.
During that time I have come to three realizations about customer service:
1. You cannot mandate customer service. Management can threaten, punish, train, reward, cajole, and yet if an employee does not want to give good service, it simply will not happen. I have seen the very best skills training programs installed, performance reviews that reflect service attributes, reward and bonus programs that are extraordinary, and even threats of job loss, yet some employees simply choose NOT to give good service.
2. Customer service comes from the inside out. As I have watched people at all levels in organizations throughout the world, both public and private, it has become very clear that in order for employees to give good service, we must win their hearts and spirits to WANT to serve, not out of loyalty to the organization but simply because they want to make the world a little better place.
3. Giving good service involves creative, "out of the box" thinking. Those who give the best service do so by offering options, alternatives, and new ways of doing things. They bend the rules for their customers, and they ALWAYS meet the customer's human need for kindness, respect, and understanding even if they cannot in some creative way meet his or her business need.
What does this mean to you as a manager? Training, rewards, threats, and policies are not enough. First, you must hire wisely, and second, you must model the qualities you desire in your employees as you interact with them. How are you treating YOUR customers?
BARBARA GLANZ BIO
For free articles you can use in your company newsletters and an archive of dozens of immediately applicable "Ideas of the Month," go to www.barbaraglanz.com. Barbara Glanz, CSP, works with organizations that want to improve morale, retention, and service and with people who want to rediscover the joy in their work and in their lives. She is the author of CARE Packages for Your Customers: An Idea a Week for Customer Service (McGraw-Hill 2007), The Simple Truths of Appreciation: How Each of Us Can Choose to Make a Difference (Simple Truths 2007), What Can I Do? Ideas to Help Those Who Have Experienced Loss (Augsburg Fortress 2007), The Simple Truths of Service -- Inspired by Johnny the Bagger by Ken Blanchard and Barbara Glanz. (Simple Truths 2005) , Balancing Acts -- More than 250 Guiltfree, Creative Ideas to Blend your Work and your Life (Dearborn 2003), Handle with CARE -- Motivating and Retaining Employees (McGraw-Hill 2002), CARE Packages for the Workplace -- Dozens of Little Things You Can Do to Regenerate Spirit at Work (McGraw-Hill 1996), The Creative Communicator (McGraw-Hill 1998), CARE Packages for the Home (Andrews McMeel 1998), and Building Customer Loyalty (McGraw-Hill 1994). As an internationally known speaker, trainer, and business consultant who has a Master's degree in Adult Education, Barbara lives and breathes her personal motto: "Spreading Contagious EnthusiasmTM." She has presented on all seven continents and in all 50 states since 1995. For more information, she can be reached directly at 941-312-9169; Fax 941-349-8209; email: bglanz@barbaraglanz.com; website: www.barbaraglanz.com.
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